Search Engine Land is your source for Google Shopping ads news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
Google Shopping Ads are a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses, enabling retailers to showcase their products prominently and drive high-intent traffic. Search Engine Land provides actionable insights to help you optimize your campaigns and maximize return on ad spend (ROAS).
Learn how to create compelling product feeds, look for trends, and leverage GPT to improve your performance. Stay informed on platform updates, such as new ad formats and features, audience targeting enhancements, and tools for improving product data quality.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies. Our goal is to simplify complex concepts and provide clear, actionable steps that can help you achieve measurable results with Google Shopping ads.
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Google has been running several experiments on the way it displays product listing ads (PLAs) in the search results. We’ve seen ads grouped in pricing buckets, PLAs showing in knowledge panels, and now, PLAs segmented by brand. While researching Chromebooks, Samuel Edwards at Tenthwave Digital saw the result below which groups product listing ads by […]
The ability to advertise locally-available products on Google via local product listing ads on mobile and desktop devices has been available since last fall. However, only on mobile devices could retailers promote items that were just available in-store. Now, Google has unofficially announced that this functionality is being extended to desktop to allow advertisers to […]
Tick tock, we’re in the final countdown before the big transition from traditional product listing ad (PLA) campaigns to Shopping Campaigns in Google AdWords at the end of the month. Considering PLAs now can account for 40 percent or more of a merchant’s paid search traffic, getting the switch done right and the new campaigns […]
With Product Listing Ad campaigns coming to an end this month, Adwords has launched a new tool to help users upgrade their PLA campaigns to Shopping campaigns in what it claims is just a, “…matter of clicks.” According to the announcement: [blockquote cite=”Google AdWords”]This tool creates a Shopping campaign from your regular PLA campaign, with […]
Google launched new features today to help merchants customize the shipping rates that display in Google Shopping. The shipping configuration tool is now available in Google Merchant Center, and a new shipping label attribute can be used in product feeds to group products with similar shipping requirements. The updates are meant to help eliminate situations […]
Spotted in a test back in May, product ratings and reviews are officially rolling out on Google Product Listing Ads as of today — just weeks ahead of the full transition to Shopping Campaigns. Available in the U.S. only for now, consumers will begin to see the 5-star rating system appear on PLAs on Google […]
Marin Software has added support for Google Shopping Campaigns, which will become the only way to manage Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in AdWords beginning in late August. The dynamic campaigns tool in the Marin platform automates Shopping Campaign creation and optimization. Advertisers can automate bid strategies, based a number of targets such as product-specific revenue […]
This could get interesting. Last month, we saw Google running a test that ranked product listing ads (PLAs) by ratings and reviews in search results. Now, a new test groups and ranks products by price. In the screenshot below, provided by CPC Strategy, PLAs are grouped in two pricing stacks — one for “Up to […]
Roughly a month ahead of the rollover to Shopping Campaigns, Google has released a new version of AdWords Editor that supports the new campaign type. Google announced the old style of PLA campaigns will be shut down at some point in late August. Note that support is limited to editing Shopping Campaigns that are already […]
It’s been a big year so far for product listing ads on both Google and Bing. Google started putting more ads in the Knowledge Graph. Bing followed Google’s lead on combining tablet and desktop traffic. And Google said it would begin stripping paid search queries from referrer strings. Now that we’re halfway through the year, […]
By claiming that paid search is largely ineffective, eBay has attracted a lot of attention and buzz with media outlets repeating the findings. Anyone who isn’t familiar with eBay’s history of throw-it-at-the-wall-and-watch-what-happens paid search advertising strategy may be able to take the company’s final release of a report that first made the rounds last year […]
With Shopping Campaigns becoming the default campaign type for running Product Listing Ads on Google by the end of August, the search giant has issued a best practices whitepaper to help marketers make the transition. The main points the paper dives into are product feed optimization and updates, Shopping campaign structure, bidding and mobile recommendations. […]
If you’re running Google Product Listing Ads, it’s time to revisit your feed. Google has updated the feed requirements for Google Shopping with several new attributes as well as some changes to existing content requirements. A new ‘mobile link’ attribute has been added to ensure users are taken to mobile landing pages from their smartphones. […]
Google’s new Shopping Campaigns offer many benefits over traditional PLA campaigns, including granular performance benchmarks, but bid optimization can still be cumbersome. Optmyzr, the company that provides automation tools for Google AdWords management, has launched a new tool to help streamline and speed-up bid management on Google Shopping Campaigns. Shopping Bidder is designed particularly for […]
Today, Google introduced a new version of the API that allows retailers to manage product feed content programmatically, as opposed to through manual updates to Google Merchant Center. It’s the first version update of the API since Google first launched it in 2010, before Google Shopping became a paid platform. Version 2 of the Content […]
The August deadline for converting your Google product listing campaigns (PLA) to the new Shopping Campaigns structure — before Google does it for you — is just a few months away. A new study from CPC Strategy suggests it’s worth making the switch sooner rather than later. CPC Strategy expected to see management efficiencies, but […]
The team at CPC Strategy spotted a new test in the Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) last night. In a search for coffee grinders that was qualified with “best”, the PLAs were shown in order of a numerical rankings system that appears to be factoring in the quality and quantity of each item’s ratings. In […]
Google’s ongoing efforts to bolster its product search portal, Google Shopping, and take on Amazon and Ebay just got another boost. The company has acquired Rangespan, a London based start-up that developed back-end supply chain management software for online retailers. Founded by Amazon veterans, Rangespan’s predictive software helps surface products that are likely to be […]
RKG is out with its first quarter Digital Marketing Report today, showing US paid search spend increased 17 percent year-over-year. This echoes positive Q1 global growth trends reported by Covario (25 percent) and IgnitionOne (8 percent). Mobile devices and product listing ads (PLAs) both drove growth. Paid search spend growth slowed slightly after the holiday-fueled […]
Google introduced Shopping campaigns to all advertisers running Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in February as a way to simplify PLA set up and management. Today, Google announced some new features that have been rolling out in response to advertiser feedback, and they laid out the succession plan for Shopping campaigns to take over legacy PLA […]
Google continues to experiment with Google Shopping displays beyond the traditional thumbnail box panel of Product Listing Ads. This latest version is larger than the sponsored result spotted earlier this month for the book “Don’t Make Me Think”. Found by Twitter user Britney Muller of Pryde Marketing, the sponsored result for “Nest thermostats” — now […]
Got some slop in your Google product feed? Now’s the time to revisit all those pesky identifiers and tidy things up. Google is upping its enforcement of product feeds in Google Merchant Center again. Google began this process last year by disapproving products without unique product identifiers such as GTIN (which also must be conform […]
Google has launched the API for the new Google Shopping Campaign type for managing product listing ads (PLAs). The API is available to agencies and third-party platforms to facilitate large-scale implementations. Google Shopping Campaigns came out of beta last month and are available globally. The new campaign type is meant to make the process of […]
Is there a long tail in PLAs? Does it pay off for retailers to advertise all of their products in their Google product listing ad (PLA) campaigns? Or should they stay focused on top sellers and high margin items? Sitting on a trove of data from large scale Google Shopping campaigns, a team at PLA […]
Google began testing Shopping campaigns with a limited set of advertisers last year with the aim of streamlining the often cumbersome task of Product Listing Ad management. Today, after just over a 3-month beta period, Google is rolling out Shopping campaigns to all users globally. Google Shopping campaigns give users access to inventory and product […]
A New York-based “patent troll” called Vringo, through its subsidiary I/P engine, successfully sued Google, Microsoft, AOL and others using two patents related to search advertising. The plaintiff won approximately $30 million at trial in 2012. Google was asked to pay $15.8 million of that amount. Yet plaintiffs were also seeking ongoing royalties, which the court has now awarded. […]
By now it’s clear that retailers made record investments in Google product listing ads (PLAs) in Q4 2013, as reports from Covario, RKG and IgnitionOne have each shown. Today, Marin Software released its own findings which reinforce the general consensus that PLA performance this past holiday season will set the trend for 2014. Marin also […]
Yesterday, we got an early preview of the first case study Google will publish on the use of estimated cross-device conversions in AdWords. It features 1-800-Flowers and also addresses the company’s use of click-to-call. When Google first announced the release of estimated cross-device conversions in October, it seemed to be received with a collective shrug. […]
RKG has released its Q4 2013 Digital Marketing Report, and as other reports have indicated, paid search saw solid year-over-year growth in the holiday quarter. Paid search spend among RKG’s retail-heavy client set rose 23 percent year-over-year. Overall click volume increased 19 percent, and CPCs ticked up just 3 percent. Google Brand CPCs Fall […]
IgnitionOne released its fourth quarter Digital Marketing Report today, showing that the paid search market in the US continues to grow. Search ad spend rose 12 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013. In part as a result of the later kick-off to the holiday shopping season this year, December ad spending was up […]
Last year, Google began adding 360 degree product views to Google Shopping ahead of the holiday season. This year, the search giant continued to tout the 360 views and have expanded from toys to other consumer products that consumers typically like to examine closely such as cameras. Users can move the images around to see […]
It’s probably not too surprising to hear that retailers have doubled their year-over-year spend on Google product listing ads this holiday season thus far. After all, the paid format of Google Shopping had just rolled out in the fall of 2012. What is stunning, however, is the four-fold increase in revenue that retailers have realized […]
It’s time for our second test of how well Google Shopping and other shopping search engines find the best prices on products. For this installment, what’s the lowest price from a major retailer for a copy of “Red 2” in the Blu-ray, DVD and digital download combo pack? Is The Featured Price The Lowest Price? […]
It sounds pretty damning. Two recent surveys suggest that Google Shopping isn’t leading searchers to the best prices on products. But the surveys weren’t well documented, nor did they include competitors like Bing, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber and Nextag, which have similar issues. So, Search Engine Land will be running its own fully documented tests. Every few […]
Consumer Watchdog has lodged a new complaint about Google’s “search monopoly” with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), this time saying Google Shopping results don’t pass the sniff test. The group calls the way the search engine displays its Product Listing ads “deceptive and unfair”, adding that Google Shopping’s paid listings are price gouging consumers. […]
Over the extended holiday shopping weekend, Google Shopping same seller sales have been growing faster than Amazon among large retailers. According to the most recent data from online retail commerce platform Mercent, Google Shopping contributed 54 percent year-over-year same-seller growth on Cyber Monday, while Amazon achieved 23 percent same-seller growth compared to Cyber Monday 2012. […]
This year, U.S. shoppers now have more opportunities than ever to join the throngs scrambling to secure holiday bargains, thanks to many brick and mortar stores opening ever earlier and staying open ever longer. Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales lollapalooza, has become a 24-hour slog for many retailers. And some retailers, impatient to lure […]
As we are approaching the end of the year, I thought it would be worth reviewing 2013 from the perspective of a UK based SEO with a diverse range of multinational clients and what opportunities lie ahead for all things SEO.
While Google’s switch to paid Product Listing Ads for Google Shopping has proven wildly successful, growth has likely been hindered by the fact that setting up and managing Product Listing Ad campaigns for Google Shopping has been plagued with complexity. Today, Google announced a new campaign type called Shopping Campaigns designed to make it easier […]
Google rolled out product listing ads (PLAs) on mobile devices in March. Now the company has launched an updated display for PLAs on smartphones that allows more products to be displayed from the search results page. Users can swipe to see more PLAs from their smartphones. Google also enlarged the product images and product titles […]